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Theodosian Land Walls of Constantinople (2025)

26 points by bcraven 4 days ago | 7 comments

As alluded, the walls stood the test of time (1,000 years) until the final siege in 1453. The Ottomans fired thousands of cannon shots (weighing 1k lbs) into the walls and ultimately broke through.

I'm struck by the significance. The walls allowed the Byzantine Empire to outlive the Roman Empire by ten centuries. Their undoing marked the end of medieval times (the collapse of the Western Roman Empire marked the start).

jballanc 3 hours ago

Fun fact about that cannon: it took so long for the cannon to cool off between shots that the Byzantines were able to patch each hole it caused before the next shot.

raldi 32 seconds ago

Supposedly they could fire it seven times a day, and had to soak it in warm oil in between to minimize thermal shock.

shrubble 3 hours ago

The repairs to the walls under the Ottoman cannon fire made use of the rubble, they made a wooden "basket" to hold the rubble; this ended up being very effective, as just like sand, the slight "give" to the rubble swallowed up much of the force of the cannonball.

robotnikman 3 hours ago

RIP Byzantine Empire

morgoths_bane 2 hours ago

1453, worst year of my life.

jcranmer 15 minutes ago

Honestly, the Fourth Crusade in 1204 was more of a "real" death of the Byzantine Empire than the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Although the largest remnant of the Byzantine Empire was able to reconquest Constantinople in 1261, the city's population never recovered (it went from ~400k in 1204 to ~50k in 1453). The 14th century saw it riven with a series of civil wars, which the Ottomans used to expand their foothold into the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. By 1453, Constantinople was unable to really defend itself without garrison from the major European states like Hungary and Venice, and Mehmet II was able to conquer the city before those states could get their forces sent out.